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Mandalorian-themed gaming community for Star Wars: The Old Republic
April 16, 2011 by blur

Do TOR titles mean our characters will only have one name?

Trying to find out whether our characters can have one name or two names has been one of my ongoing missions since the TOR forum opened. Yet whether we can, or not, is a secret that’s still up there with UFOs, Bigfoot and Elvis being spotted at 7-11. It’s been asked a million times and, only recently, we got the, “it’s still under discussion” brush off.

(Really? Something so simple still under discussion after all these years…?!?)

So it was interesting to read Daniel Erickson’s comments (reproduced below), not in the sense that Darth will be off-limits when creating names… that was always a given. And not even in the sense that you can become a Lord or Darth or some other title through what you do in the game… I’ve pretty much always believed that would be the case.

No folks, what his comment suggests to me is that we’re now going down the path of single character names. And why? Simple. If you name your character, “John Smith”, becoming “Darth John Smith” looks terrible… not only because of the extra name in there (“Darth Smith” or “Darth John” would be much better in a pinch), but also because a Sith would typically change their name when becoming a Darth anyway… and I doubt the game will allow for people suddenly changing their name entirely, or dropping a first or last name to be replaced by their title later on.

(But hey, if the game DOES allow that… great… I just don’t think it will…)

So this, more than anything, suggests to me that we are heading for one-name characters and perhaps the reason Bioware is being so cagey with this information is because it knows there’s a ton of RP people out here who are going to freak out when they are told that their character can only be known by one name and, if that character doesn’t attain a title, will ALWAYS be only known by one name. Honestly, some people are going to absolutely hate that concept.

Your thoughts?

Hey Folks,

Darth and Lord are ranks in the Old Republic time period and while they represent an increasingly smaller percentage of overall Sith, they are clearly not at as rare as only having one or two running around in the galaxy. There are already numerous Darths (Baras, Malgus) we’ve seen who are not on the Dark Council.

It will likely not come as a surprise to most people that the titles of Darth and Lord are story-based rewards (one does not become a Darth by grinding frog-dogs) as are Master, etc. What may come as a surprise is that not everyone who completes a Sith or Jedi story will achieve them. There are always choices and those choices matter in many ways, including your notoriety and the rewards or reputation you earn. Darth will absolutely be off-limits when creating names.

Hope that helps!
Daniel Erickson

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Permalink | Posted in Information, Opinion, Rant, Star Wars, The Old Republic | 2 Comments »

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January 19, 2011 by blur

So, what server will you be on?

Rather blissfully over the last couple of years, people on the TOR forums haven’t been obsessed with its game servers, insofar as what they’ll be called and what guilds will be on which servers. And this makes perfect sense — the devs haven’t released a list of server names, so no one can state with certainty where their guild will end up, anyway, and I think most people have realised this.

But lately I’ve started to notice more and more people asking the question, “So, what server will you be on?” or at least a variation of it. Someone even asked us in our guild recruitment thread.

To that person, and to the people who read out guild blog here, I say this: At some stage we will choose a game server, it’s true! But before then, the following has to happen: (1) The TOR devs have to define what the server types will be; (2) Beskar members will need to debate (and possibly vote), on our preferred server type; (3) The devs will need to release the names of the servers, in conjunction with what style of servers they represent; (4) Beskar members will need to debate (and possibly vote), on our preferred server name that correlates with our preferred server type.

After all of that, I have no doubt we will be able tell you, “what server we’ll be on”.

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December 10, 2010 by blur

The #1 issue remains story versus individuality

From day one, literally, Bioware has made no secret of the story component of TOR.

If you’re a Trooper, you start in Havoc squad… if you’re a Sith Inquisitor, you start as a slave… and so on. This has led to people pointing out, quite rightly, that the game seems to leave less roleplaying and imagination for people.

My trooper character, for example, MUST be from Havoc squad. And yours. And yours. And yours. And yours. And you over there? Yours, too. This generally isn’t how people who like to think about their characters would prefer to play an MMO. Period.

And sure, I take onboard that some people don’t care — they just want to play TOR “as a game”. And that’s fine. But in every MMO, and in BioWare games particularly, there are people who are quite creative and like to THINK about their character, too.

This has led to a TOR forum user telling me:

Its not Bioware’s job to do that. Bioware’s job is to give us a game with a storyline, quests, and gameplay that we can enjoy.

To which I say, actually, if you want to talk about what Bioware’s “job” is, it’s to provide a realistic multi-user environment. Why? Because it says this is an MMO. As such, it needs a different set-up to Bioware’s single player games. That is the bottom line, right there.

I’m getting a little sick, actually, of people defending a single player experience as valid in MMO terms — it’s not. It’s absolutely valid in a single player game — fantastic fun, actually, and I think Bioware makes great single player games — but this isn’t a single player game and should be treated differently. Thus far, I’m worried that it hasn’t been.

So the real question is, how will Bioware reconcile story and the desire for people to feel like their own character?

There’s been a lot of talk, but none of it’s actually answered this staggeringly simple question. I really wish we had one.

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Permalink | Posted in Opinion, Rant, Roleplay, Star Wars, The Old Republic | 5 Comments »

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August 12, 2010 by blur

Forced background? Pure crazy, if you ask me…

In the recent Forced Species article at Massively, there’s a comment:

I do not know all the details at this time, but I do know that — as it stands — there is only one backstory choice which allows for a non-Human for each class. If we take the bounty hunter, for example, the choices are currently Outlaw, The Merc, and Gladiator. If you choose the Outlaw or The Merc backstory, you get a Human; whereas, if you choose the Gladiator backstory, your species will be Ratattaki.

I’ve read through the article once, twice, three times and it doesn’t get any better. The decision is ridiculous. It’s like Bioware, who always harp on about understanding RPGs, don’t actually understand RPGs at all.

For example, if you want to be a Ratattaki you MUST have the Gladiator background?!? Excuse me?!? Where is the diversity and imagination and everything else we associate with roleplaying in that decision?

I don’t even WANT to be a Ratattaki Bounty Hunter but, for those who do, I imagine some might like the option of the Outlaw or Merc background instead. Yet, they get wedged into being the Gladiator background only.

Crazy.

Pure crazy.

Who sanity checked all these ideas? Or was it just a group of guys sitting around a table too scared to disagree with one another for fear of being the odd one out (not dissimilar to the way the Star Wars prequels were made — and look how they ended up???)

And now some dummy, over on the TOR forums, has said to me that players still “have control over their character” in response to me making the point that this takes some of the control over a player’s character out of the player’s hands.

I mean, in what universe? How wrong can you be? If your race is dictated by the background you want… or your background is dictated by the race you want, YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL. That is so obvious. Sheesh. The Bioware fanboi’s are out in force today, I can see.

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Permalink | Posted in Opinion, Rant, Roleplay, Star Wars, The Old Republic | 9 Comments »

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August 6, 2010 by blur

Why I think The Old Republic will have one server type

When people talk about TOR, they often project their hopes and dreams onto the game which is understandable because we all like unreleased games to meet our own hopes and expectations. Sometimes, however, these hopes and expectations might be unrealistic.

A good example of this kind of thinking occurs in the area of servers. But more on that in a moment.

Typically, there are two kinds of servers in MMORPGs and two roleplaying variants of the same, as follows:

  • PVE server, with PvP restricted to closed zones or battlegrounds.
  • PVP server, with open world PvP in several zones.
  • RP-PVE server, with PvP restricted to closed zones or battlegrounds. Roleplaying is always encouraged.
  • RP-PVP server, with open world PvP in several zones. Roleplaying is always encouraged.

Now, many TOR fans are expecting to see all four kinds of server in operation. Yet, I have a feeling there will be one only:

  • PVE server, with PvP restricted to closed zones or battlegrounds.

How have I arrived at this? Easy.

First, there’s the issue of PvP. And you know what? After watching the 50 minute panel at E3 where it was stated, flat out, that while there’s PvP, nothing we do can actually affect the gameworld (because, “It has to be there for people when they play the game later on, to have the same experience…” or words to that effect), it became apparent to me that the TOR guys are leaning towards battlegrounds — specific areas where PvP will take place — and the rest of the game will be PvE, basically.

Second, there’s roleplay. And I just have this funky idea that in a game that is so roleplay-centric where everyone will be roleplaying to a greater degree than in other MMOs, I query if Bioware will bother marking some servers as RP servers. And if you’re sitting out there, spitting beer all over your monitor and shouting, “I’m no %#%@ing roleplayer!”, you will be in TOR’s eyes.

I’m thinking here specifically about elements like multiple answers characters will have in quests and all the other staples of single-player ROLEPLAYING games that Bioware is famous for.

I understand that gamers might want to elect a particular server within the TOR community as being the server where people will do very overt roleplaying, above and beyond what other people will do by default, but I doubt the game will suggest any particular server over another as THE roleplaying server; it will want to see its game as a roleplaying game, period.

So that’s my reasoning. Strip away the RP tags and strip away the world PvP and what have you got?

A PVE server, with PvP restricted to closed zones or battlegrounds.

For everyone.

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August 1, 2010 by blur

The best roleplaying will come with end game

The TOR forums are full of so much wishful thinking, I don’t know whether it’s sweet to behold, or the sign of people who just don’t want to face reality.

A good case in point, I recently made the observation that, “The [TOR] storyline is relatively fixed, despite having different little sidepaths…” and, “I think the real roleplay, if one wants to roleplay, will come with endgame…”

Well, didn’t people jump on that? I didn’t know anything, apparently… Bioware is amazing and will be making the biggest storyline ever where you can do “anything”… and so on and so forth. Gee, you’d think I’d gone ’round to these people’s houses and set fire to their letterbox, or something, such was the anger and bile that spewed out from some of them.

But as I said to these folks, the storyline’s still not as open as they say it is.

Why? Because the devs still need to take people from A to B. That’s how any story works. Like I had suggested, there might be some interesting sidepaths along the way, but you will still end up at ‘B’ regardless of what you do. The real variation will be in how good or evil your character has become along the way… but even then, faction swapping isn’t in the game — as recently confirmed at E3 — so there’s still not as major an outcome as you might think.

I stand by what I said and I say it again here: true roleplaying will start at end game when you’re free of the storyline that everyone else in your class is doing.

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Permalink | Posted in Opinion, Rant, Roleplay, Star Wars, The Old Republic | 4 Comments »

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July 28, 2010 by blur

Why your in-game character affects your roleplaying

I was talking to some people on the The Old Republic (TOR) forum about roleplaying in MMORPGs the other day. One of them, in particular, was quite adamant that you can “be anything” in an MMORPG like TOR and the game mechanics can be damned.

Now, as I said to that person, sure, in theory, you can roleplay anything. You can claim you’re a pink bunny rabbit from the outer moons of Corellia and fudge why your in-game character is neither pink, a bunny rabbit or has any supporting documentation from from the outer moons of Corellia. But to most people, even roleplayers, that would be cheesy.

Because, at the end of the day, most people have limits. And those limits are generally tied to the game mechanics. There’s no getting around that.

My personal point of view is that the larger the difference between what is being roleplayed and the actual in-game character and their mechanics, the worse the roleplay gets. Don’t know what I mean? Let’s say your in-game character is a Smuggler.

You can say, “I’m an alcoholic Smuggler…” and that’s great. It’s believable. Throw in a few staggers and slurred words and you’re there. People will remember you as “the alcoholic Smuggler”. Good roleplay!

Or you can say, “I’m a secret agent…” and that’s interesting. Sort of believable (you might be undercover in a Smuggler disguise), and many people might buy into it, depending on your skill as a storyteller.

Or, finally, you can say, “I’m the head of the Jedi Order…” which is totally silly and not believable at all. You aren’t dressed like a Jedi; you have no Force powers; you have no lightsaber. Nothing you can do in the game would demonstrate that you were a Jedi, outside of words you type on the screen. And when it comes to words, they are just that… words. More people would conclude you were a charlatan or a madman, pretending to be the head of the Jedi Order, than would actually believe in your roleplay. And that’s a problem for any roleplayer, when their roleplay isn’t believable, LOL!

So, just indicating there that there are degrees to which an in-game character can be roleplayed, but some are infinitely more believable, and thus WORK BETTER, than others.

And your in-game character DOES play a massive part in that.

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July 26, 2010 by blur

Differences between Mandalorian guilds

Just recently I had some words back and forth with a number of Mandalorian guilds which reside on the “undecided” forum on the official TOR forums. The conversation(s) can be distilled down to this:

blur: Why are you guys in the “undecided” forum? Isn’t it clear that the Bounty Hunter is the most Mandalorian of classes? As such, shouldn’t you be a Sith guild, like Beskar, in order to have Bounty Hunters on your roster?

Guild 1: We don’t know enough, yet. Who says that Bounty Hunter is the most Mandalorian of classes?

Guild 2: We are a Sith and Republic guild, so we can have any classes we want.

Guild 3: It’s all roleplay. We can say we’re Mandalorian Jedi, working for the Republic, if we want to!

Working backwards on those replies, I can see how some people would be ‘OK’ with being in a Republic guild, comprising Jedi, Smugglers and Troopers and roleplaying that they all have Mandalorian backgrounds. I think the more passionate Mandalorian fans, meanwhile, can see the flaws in this method. Namely, everything we’ve seen of the storyline points to the Mandalorians fighting the Republic at present, in the employ of the Sith. Not to mention, the issues Mandalorians have with Force users in general.

Sure, it might have been cute when Karen Traviss wrote a Jedi into Kal Skirata’s clan in the Republic Commando series of novels — and I have no doubt that’s where all these “Mandalorian Jedi” wannabe’s are getting their inspiration — but even that was under very, very specific circumstances… including said Jedi renouncing his Jedi ways and living like an beskar’gam wearing Mandalorian, day to day. Meanwhile, I get the feeling that all these “Mandalorian Jedi” wannabe’s are going to want to have their cake and eat it too, ie: to run around as a Jedi in-game, but call themselves a Mandalorian, too. Blech.

The second reply, meanwhile, flies in the face of all logic. Bioware has divided the classes across two factions — Sith and Republic — and made it clear that TOR is all about a universe at war. They want everyone to be “heroic” and taking part in this conflict whether they like it or not. See, TOR’s not a game like Star Wars Galaxies where you could opt-out of the fighting and go and have a farm on Tatooine. TOR is all about the fight. As such, I would fall off my chair, twice, if Bioware says that guilds can be multi-factional. Given that, all these guilds which claim to be multi-factional are most likely going to be up a well-known creek without a paddle and will lose members when they have to choose one faction over the other and all the members who wanted to be “the other” faction either have to change faction or get the shaft. Watch and see.

Some more advanced guilds claim they will simply run two separate guilds. OK… the only problems I see there are, (i) The game could easily faction-lock people to a server (ie: if you create a Republic character, you cannot create a Sith character on the same server — and vice versa),  which means that the two guilds would exist on two different servers — essentially in two different universes, so to speak — making the concept next to pointless and, (ii) Running one guild is tough. Running two guilds is insane. Anyone who lightly says, “Oh yeah, I’ll just run two guilds…” has clearly never done it before.

Then we get to the third reply. The reply that guild’s make when they just can’t believe the game isn’t going to go their way. The reply of people who can read a dozen hard and fast facts about TOR, then turn around and say they’re all meaningless because more information might emerge to blow them all away. Nuh. Sorry. Not this time. The game is what it is and I think Bioware has been really clear in a number of areas about where its taking the storyline and, by association, the gamers who play certain classes. Just on the Mando question, I refer you all to the new Drew Karpyshyn interview at Darth Hater. Specifically, this bit:

During the panel you mentioned that the Mandalorians will be a part of the Bounty Hunter class story line; how involved will they be? Also, can you give us any more information about how prominently they will be featured in the over arching galactic story?

DK: We obviously can’t go into too many details, but the Mandalorians are an integral part of the Bounty Hunter class story. They are also, as the Mandalorians are wont to be, a very powerful faction in the galaxy. They like to get their gauntlets in everyone’s business, so they will feature quite prominently in Star Wars: The Old Republic. And if you are a fan of the Mandos, I think you are going to really like it.

So how any Mandalorian guild can sit out there, at present, and tell me that the Bounty Hunter class isn’t tied up with the Mandalorians more than the other classes… I don’t know. I just don’t know. And, sure, Karpyshyn does say that the Mandalorians get into “everyone’s” business — and that’s no surprise given we’ve watched them sack Coruscant in the timeline — but it’s always the Bounty Hunter class that gets singled out for the most Mandalorian attention and commentary. How any guild could sit out there and tell me that the Jedi or Smugglers or Republic Troopers, for example, are “more Mandalorian” in their storyline is beyond me.

And yet there it is… there are Mandalorian guilds out there, right now, which will promise you a multi-factional guild, even though that’s highly unlikely to be allowed in the game. There are others which will promise you two guilds, even though that’s going to be an admin nightmare and the guild’s could end up being on totally different servers, anyway. Others will say it’s cool if you want to roleplay a Mandalorian Jedi — even though it’s perhaps the cheesiest and least likely character I could ever dream up. And then there are others who will try and assure you that Bounty Hunters really aren’t the most Mandalorian of all the classes… yet they clearly are.

What are your thoughts?

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June 7, 2010 by blur

RP 101: Session 2 // Begin At The Beginning

Roleplay 101 Banner
I. Roleplaying: Development

Where or when did roleplay develop? Some might tell you it all began with “Dungeons & Dragons” or some other similar traditional RPG. However, long before that, people roleplayed as children. Surely, you’ve heard of children “playing house” or perhaps playing a game of “Cops & Robbers” or “Cowboys & Indians”. Long before we knew what roleplay was, we were doing it.

We’ve also developed some roleplaying skill through video games, starting way back in the day with games like Super Mario Brothers. We weren’t *actually* a plump Italian plumber, who went to the Mushroom Kingdom to save the Princess. We merely portrayed him through our game choices. Jump up or go down the pipe? Get the Flower Power or keep on trucking for more coins? They were basic decisions, but still the very beginnings of roleplay.

As video games developed, they began producing roleplay titles like “Hillsfar” and “Curse of the Azure Bonds”, these followed the early ruleset of Dungeons & Dragons. You got to create a character, name them, then play in the world as that character.

Now, in the new millenia, there are dozens upon dozens of RPG titles for you to delve into, in a variety of different worlds. Yet, regardless of a video game being a RPG or not, whatever game you choose, you’re still roleplaying, believe it or not. When you play Grand Theft Auto, you’re playing the role of a car thief. You wouldn’t *actually* go out and steal a car, would you? It’s just a role you take on for the sake of the game, so you can immerse yourself in that game world.

Roleplay, at its heart, is really no different. And if you think about it long enough, you’ll discover more ways you roleplay every day than you ever thought possible. If you take that perspective, it really becomes less of a foreign concept.

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May 22, 2010 by blur

Roleplay 101 // S1: The Basics

This blog series is a beginner’s guide to roleplay, also for those who, while they may not be interested in roleplay themselves, have often had questions about what it is or “how to do it”.  We’ll also be covering myths and mythos about roleplaying as we go along.  But first, we need to begin at the beginning…

Session One:   “The Basics”

I. What is “roleplay”?

Wikipedia defines it as thus:

Role-playing refers to the changing of one’s behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role.

In essence, when you roleplay, you are an actor and you take on the role of whatever entity you are planning to portray.

To expand on that further, and for the intents that a group like ours would use roleplay, let’s look at Wikipedia’s definition of a “Role-playing game”:

A role-playing game (RPG; often roleplaying game) is a game in which the participants assume the roles of fictional characters. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.  Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.

By this definition, you have a more expounded view on what a roleplayer’s intentions are and that a role played within the game is purely fictional.  Characters can vary, having different skills, abilities, backgrounds, but oftentimes share some common goal, which brings them together in the game in the first place.

Roleplay was brought into mainstream primarily by game systems like “Dungeons & Dragons”, but many of us have most likely been roleplaying long before we knew what roleplaying was.  We’ll go into more depth on that subject later in this series.

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